I'm Still Here
by TXJ
Summary: "Sarah you surprise me.  I had thought you had learned this lesson long ago." "... Jareth, please, I am not fit to be a parent."   ... Jareth smiled, it was as if she knew what he had done.
1. Sarah's Plight

Dis: This is a work of fanfiction, purely done for enjoyment. Labyrinth and its characters are copyright TriStar Pictures, David Lazer, George Lucas, Eric Rattray, Terry Jones, Dennis Lee, Jim Henson. With references to **_Return to Labyrinth_**, written by Jake T. Forbes, illustrated by Chris Lie.

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><p>"Sarah you surprise me. I had thought you had learned this lesson long ago." Jareth appraised the aged woman before him. The first time he had stood before her she had only been a teen; a child transitioning into adulthood. The words she had spoken had been out of frustration and anger. The weight of them beyond her grasp until he had taught her the consequences of them.<p>

The fact that she invoked the same words over two decades later disappointed him.  
>He had kept his eye on Sarah over the years, watched her grow, and even given her a second chance to be part of his world. She had chosen this world and novel writing to fulfill her dreams. Her writing had become her life, the stories her only love.<p>

That is why he was certain that the child she now requested for him to take wasn't hers. She held connection to the child much like she had with her baby brother, still this child was less Sarah's than her baby brother had been.

He let the cruelty in his eyes show as he stalked towards her.

"Wishing away children that aren't really yours again?" he demanded.

"She is, was, Toby's. Jareth please." there were tears in her eyes, he took a step closer to her. The change in tenths when speaking of her brother had not escaped him.

"So young Toby has sired a child and left her for you to raise? What of Toby? Where is the child's mother?"  
>Sarah shook her head and sobbed at the questions.<p>

"Toby is dead, almost a year now. He was a soldier. Her mother took off in the night leaving a note that she wouldn't be back. Jareth, please, I am not fit to be a parent!"

Jareth could only shake his head and tut. Sarah was dancing around what she really wanted to say, and it irked him.

"Why call me. Your people have homes for unwanted children these days. Surely you don't wish to see your niece turned into a goblin." He flashed pointed teeth at Sarah and took a step toward the sleeping child.

Sarah took a small step between him and the child.

"You wouldn't. I may not have realized it then, but I know now that you wouldn't have turned Toby into a goblin. You gave him some of your magic; you would have given him your kingdom. That magic was passed on to her Jareth."

Jareth felt his disappointment turn to shock. There had to be a mistake, his magic couldn't have been passed on, when Toby had chosen never to return to the Underground the power that he had been given left him.

"She does not have my power Sarah. Toby relinquished it, much the same as you did. Neither of you wanted what I offered. That is why I am shocked that now you expect my assistance."

Jareth knew the expression that Sarah was now wearing. It was of indignant shock and anger. She hated not getting her way almost as much as he hated not getting his.

"What do you want me to do Jareth, beg? Plead? I was a teenager then. I couldn't leave my family, and the second time you tried pulling me into your world I was still trying to find my way in this one. This isn't about me, this is about her."

He held up a hand to cut her off.

"I can not Sarah. Even if I wanted to, it is not allowed. The child is too old. Once a child is old enough to remember his or her world I can not take the child away. "

"I don't believe you." she kept her voice a whisper so as not to wake the sleeping girl, but it held the same harshness that she had always used towards him. He would always be the villain to her, never to be trusted.

"First you say she can't have Toby's powers because you took them back, then you say you can't take her because she is too old, yet you took Toby a second time when he was eleven. In doing this you also say that I still have power, but I rejected your offer the same as Toby. Which is it Goblin King!"

Jareth raised an eyebrow at her use of his title, but waved his hands dismissively at her accusations. The part of him that still cared deeply for Sarah wanted to take away her sorrow and stress, but he knew taking the child would do neither.

"Her name, what is it?"

This wasn't what Sarah had been expecting, but it only took her a second to recover.

"You aren't changing the subject on me." Her voice was beginning to rise and the child stirred.

Jareth gestured toward the door, taking their conversation into the hallway.

After closing the door behind her Sarah rounded on Jareth.

"Answer me Goblin King. How can I have called you if I forfeited my powers when I refused your offer a second time?"

This seemed to be going in circles. He pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Fine I will indulge you, but when I am done you will explain everything to me. Shall we sit?" he suggested instantly transporting them to the living room.

He seated himself and patted the cushion next to him, knowing that she would choose the seat furthest from him anyhow. It wasn't lost on him how she watched him cross his legs, ankle across his knee and lean back on the sofa. There was a time when he also would have drank in her appearance and enjoyed her presence (no matter how annoyed), but that time had passed.

"You chose this world as did your brother. Your power to make your own wishes come true by simply wishing out loud left the two of you when you each made that decision. However you retained a tie to my world by writing about it. While you chose not to directly be a part of my world you chose to stay in contact with its inhabitants retaining a small amount of the magic that is native to our lands. Toby left it all behind. As I said before, she is too old to be taken as goblin and the laws of our land prohibit me from taking a human child who is old enough to remember this world into ours. Toby was different because he had been there before and he willingly followed one of my goblins.  
>You say this child has magic, what proof do you have?"<p>

Sarah had kept quiet, not interrupting him.

"She –"  
>"Does she not have a name? You have not used it once!" Jareth couldn't put his finger on it, but he was bothered by the way Sarah wouldn't name the child.<p>

"Katarina, she was named after Toby's mom and given her mothers name for a middle name. She is Katarina Alana Williams. My parents have had very little to do with her since they moved away, and Karen claims that her health is not up to raising a child. Her mother had no family that we know of, not that they would taker her if they did. As for proof, no six year old little girl in our world can make flowers blossom with a touch and form picture book sandcastles with bare hands. I'm not sure if it has anything to do with it, but she has one brown and one blue eye. The blue is an unnaturally intense shade, almost electric."

He kept his expression blank.

"Then it is a good thing that little Katarina is in your world and not mine. Children with mismatched eyes tend to be the product of crossbreeding or considered bad omens, neither are kindly looked upon." Jareth stretched and stood up.

"I really should be going. However I will make you this deal Sarah. Keep the child, raise her for, oh let's say, the next decade. She will be old enough to choose at that point. Until thin I will leave her with a small parting gift." Upon which he had transported them back into the sleeping girl's room.

Jareth approached the bed, sitting gently on the edge he softly chanted a few words; a prayer used long ago to bind the children of his people so that their magic would not accidently bring harm or destruction before the child was old enough to wield and control the power.  
>With a gentle kiss on her forehead the spell was sealed.<p>

"I will protect you My Lord" the child murmured and turned over in her sleep.

Jareth smiled, it was as if she knew what he had done.

"That will put an end to any magic she has been using, but I will warn you. Sarah this binding can not be left on her if she does indeed have magic. She will need to be trained if she is using the earth element as you have implied. Ten years, if I do not return, someone from my lands will."

And with that he was gone, a single feather the only trace that he had ever been there.

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><p><strong>AN: <strong>Katarina Alana loosely translates into "Pure Awakening". Also I gave in, and despite the fact that this makes slight reference to some events in "Return to the Labyrinth", where Toby's mom is named Irene, adopted the name of Karen but took the liberty of playing with the name. Also Alana is one of the most awesome characters in Tamora Peirce's world of Tortall.


	2. Was it a Dream?

**Dis**: This is a work of fanfiction, purely done for enjoyment. Labyrinth and its characters are copyright TriStar Pictures, David Lazer, George Lucas, Eric Rattray, Terry Jones, Dennis Lee, Jim Henson. With references to **_Return to Labyrinth_**, written by Jake T. Forbes, illustrated by Chris Lie.

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><p>Katarina woke with a start. She'd had '<em>that<em>' dream again. It wasn't exactly a nightmare but the dream wasn't wholly pleasant either. The setting felt like the world described in her aunt's books. The sky red as desert clay with the distant mountains ranging from indigo to violet in color. Talking animals and the people, if they could be called that, were anything but human. Little men that ranged from greenish-brown to grey in skin tone changed from playful ornery creatures to destructive and mean natured before her eyes. The meanness twisting their already oddly shaped features making them frightening and grotesque in appearance.

"**Chaos with out bounds."**

A female voice had spoken what felt like strait into her bones then the scene shifted.

Crumbled rock, flooded wasted land that she could tell had once been forest, distant cries of anguish, and the sound of metal on metal. Katarina coughed as smoke burned her eyes and sealed her throat. her panoramic view came into focus on tarp covered cages, that smelled of cast iron and ozone. A shrill cry emitted from one of the cages and another shook and rattled in response but Katarina still couldn't see the inside.

"**Freedom sold for the cost of power."**

The injustice of it stirred something in her. She wanted to lash out, to break open every cage and bring the ones who had destroyed the lands and enslaved its inhabitants to their knees.

Her view turned and speed forward across land to a castle with winding twisting stairs, the brick once a dusty brown now covered in grime, the smell of rot and decay hung thick in the air. A feeling of anticipation pressed in like darkness or the suspense that comes with the scary music in a movie, still all was silent.

Moving further into the castle the smell of ozone mixed with the putrid decay, the decay taking a distinct rotten egg smell. As Katarina reached a set of large arched doors the feeling of ominous power became nearly overwhelming.

"**Ambition with out bounds, Power unearned, Elements corrupted"**

Suddenly she felt as if she were being both sucked and hurled backwards. Her view was once again disembodied looking down on a beautiful castle that seemed to be made of a hundred thousand waterfalls and fountains.

"**Your chapter starts here."**

The voice was a whisper this time as the view focused in on one of the towers. The tower had been mostly hidden by the water that cascaded down on all sided from a fountain at its turret. Inside it was so dark that she could hardly see. Finally she could make out a cage, a man lay in it. His hair dark with grime, his once nice clothes filthy, he was a prisoner clearly uncared about for some time. His head snapped up, his blue eyes bore strait into her, as if he could not only see her, but see strait into her soul.

"You again? Hurry."

"**Your King is calling. Will you keep the promise you made him? Forsake the gift he gave you."**

Then it was over.

'_I've got to lay off the video games before bed.'_

"Rina you awake? Don't for get to walk Diddy this morning; I'll be home around six tonight."

Katarina sighed at the intrusion to her thoughts.

"Have a good day Aunt Sarah." she called back

Sliding out of bed and turning to pull the covers up so that her bed would 'look' made her eye was caught by the dream catcher hanging above her head board.

"Wonder if my dreams would be any different with out you there." she pondered out loud stroking the white and grey feather that hung centered from a leather cord.

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><p><strong>Authors Notes: <strong>Yes, Katarina (Rina) is a die hard Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy game fan. However her associating her game play to the dream is about as close to a cross-over as that will come.

Next chapter is Sarah's, I promise we'll eventually get to some real Jareth.


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